Countess Mathilde of Bergolo

At the table

Street food sold for under five centavos

Workers and passersby could buy fried fish from street vendors for slightly less than five centavos.

What people wore

Standard urban clothing by 1885

By 1885, the typical urban look for men included a bowler hat, a suit, and black shoes, while women wore fitted dresses with a bustle and short boots.

Getting around

Ox-carts were extremely slow transport

Ox-drawn carts were much slower than stagecoaches, moving at only 3–4 km/h while loaded. A 400 km trip from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata could take over 8 to 10 days by cart, compared to 5 or 6 days by stagecoach.

What it cost

Meat prices and sales methods

Meat was typically sold in chunks rather than by weight; a leg of mutton cost between $0.75 and $1.25.

Music

The universal milonga in Buenos Aires

By 1883, the milonga was a universal dance in Buenos Aires outskirts, often played on guitars, paper-combs, flutes, harps, violins, or by organ grinders.

Daily life

Disciplining the ideal housewife

Household manuals and school curricula taught girls that home management required constant vigilance, including daily cleaning of floors, furniture, and oil lamps, as well as the strict control of servants. Efficient housewives were advised to manage their own budget using their own scales and measures to avoid overpaying for food.